Swinney pushes Starmer for investment at Edinburgh meeting

Scotland’s First Minister pushed Sir Keir Starmer for more public investment in his government’s budget at the end of the month during a meeting in Edinburgh.

The two met privately on Friday ahead of the inaugural Council of the Nations and Regions – a body designed to reset relationships between the UK Government, devolved administrations and metro mayors.

Speaking after the summit, John Swinney said he had a “helpful conversation with the Prime Minister about the “important issues that affect Scotland”.

“This has been a welcome opportunity to raise significant issues that affect the prospects of Scotland, and central to that is the outcome of the budget, where we need to see investment in our public services and in our infrastructure to stimulate the growth that all of us want to see delivered within the economy,” he told broadcasters.

“It’s very much at the heart of the Prime Minister’s agenda, it’s very much at the heart of my agenda, and I want to make sure that we’ve got the right investment in our economy, which is an essential product of the budget at the end of October.”

In recent months, Mr Swinney has repeatedly attacked Sir Keir’s government over what he described as “austerity” in recent spending decisions, including the decision to means test the winter fuel payment, but he struck a more conciliatory tone following Friday’s meeting.

The SNP at Westminster has called for a £16 billion increase to the NHS budget, which would provide £1.6bn to Scotland through the Barnett formula.

The First Minister also pushed Sir Keir on a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) facility in Aberdeenshire, which has again been overlooked by the UK Government for funding.

The Acorn project was given reserve status under the previous UK government and missed out on a share of £22bn which went to two similar facilities in the north of England.

“I’ve set out to the Prime Minister the critical nature of investment in CCUS within Scotland, and we’ve got a superb project that merits investment,” he said.

The issues he raised, the First Minister said, were “taken seriously” by Sir Keir during their meeting.